Egypt Achieves Primary Surplus of EGP 25.3 Billion Despite Pandemic

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said that the Egypt managed to achieve a preliminary budget surplus of EGP 25.3 billion in the fiscal year 2020/21, from July-March, despite the negative repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on economic activity.

This came during a cabinet meeting on financial performance, headed by PM Mustafa Madbouly.

Maait added that adequate funding was provided for supporting  the most affected groups and sectors during the outbreak of the pandemic, in addition to meeting all the needs of the health sector to tackle the virus, pointing out the government increased its investments and provided budget needs, insurance fund receivables and pensions.

Maait explained that the annual revenue growth rate increased by about 14.6% during the same period, although the pandemic continues to hurt economic activity.

He pointed out that the government spending increased by 11.3% in the light of the implementation of many large national projects to help improve the country's infrastructure, as well as the provision of support programs, social protection and higher spending on sectors such as health and education.

The minister noted that the public expenditure had witnessed a higher bill of wages and compensation of workers at 9.6% compared to the previous year, adding that the ministry sought to prolong the debt term at 3.2 years in June 2020 instead of 1.3 years in June 2013, and up to to 3.6-3.8 years by the end of June 2021.

He referred that the total financial allocations to finance government investment showed a significant rise during the same period at about EGP 164 billion, an increase of 45%, while the treasury financed investments rose to About EGP 115 billion, an increase of 29%, year-on-year.